By Amy Antenora, Editor

ALBION, Ill. — Camilla Denison is president of Champion Laboratories, Inc., a business unit of United Components. She joined the company in 2005, after an extensive career with such companies as General Motors, ITT Automotive, Visteon Corp. and Textron Fastening Systems, from which she retired before reaching the age of 40. Denison came out of retirement to join Alemite Corp., where she served as CEO before joining Champion.

Denison graduated with her B.S. in Electrical Engineering from GMI Engineering and Management Institute. After a 10-year career with General Motors, she went on to receive her M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the famed Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She holds an M.S. in Management from the Sloan School at MIT. She was also a Leaders for Manufacturing fellow at MIT.

Today, Denison shares with us a little background on how values, ethics and business strategies have grown Champ Labs from a small, entrepreneurial business into a global success story.

Champion Laboratories has a long history that can be traced back to the vision and hard work of one man – Howard Gaither. What characteristics of the small, entrepreneurial business that Gaither established have remained as the company has grown to become a global, large-scale business?

Mr. Gaither prided himself on listening to his customers during the early years of his company and even though we have grown tremendously over the years we continue to focus on our customers. Listening to our customer’s requests and providing solutions is always a top priority at Champion Laboratories. I think Mr. Gaither would be very proud of what has become of his legacy. The company is continually honing its expertise in lube, air, fuel, coolant and cabin air filters, as well as maintaining its entrepreneurial spirit.

In the emerging markets like India and China, how is innovation playing a role in meeting market needs?

As a company we have to be tuned into national interests and cultural differences in vehicle designs and subtle lubrication/fuel liquids changes. As the industry’s leader in innovation, we are on the leading edge of product development needs that meet the growing demands of our growing global marketplace.

"Green" is a theme we hear a lot about these days. Is that an innovation challenge for Champion Laboratories? How do you feel your p rod ucts can contribute to green living?

As a company that p rod uces p rod ucts that are discarded on a regular basis, this is an area where we are constantly coming up with ideas and prototypes to improve that situation. More importantly, we know that if consumers stick to regular oil change intervals, it improves the efficiency and performance of a vehicle. That alone contributes to reductions in waste. However, an innovation of ours was the e-core filter. The e-core uses less material and is therefore lighter weight, improving the mileage performance of the vehicle, plus the inner core can be recycled. This is an example of Champion Laboratories’ commitment to being sensitive to the world around us.

In the vehicle markets Champion Laboratories’ serves, products on the shelf at the point of purchase are critical. How have you focused your organization on this critical factor?

Being consistent in terms of the supply chain is paramount to the brand promise. You can’t sell out of an empty wagon even if the p rod uct is the latest and greatest. Not having the product at the last customer touch point may be the quickest way to lose everything you’ve worked hard for. We are as tuned-in to the end-user as we have ever been, and that translates to our ability to offer our customers the very best sales support in the industry so that they can be successful at the point of sale. At Champion Laboratories, we are very proud of our fill rates and, in fact, they may be best in class. A lot of our work in the factory concentrates on lean manufacturing concepts such as improving quality, reducing scrap, reducing cycle times etc. Controlling and decreasing inventory are the cornerstones of our production efforts.

Every business is challenged with keeping costs down today. How have challenges such as rising raw materials costs and pricing pressures affected your business?

At Champion Laboratories, we strive to be as lean as possible at all times. Getting concessions from our suppliers to hold down their prices is part of the equation, while the other part of the equation is our people putting forth their best effort in the most efficient way possible. Certainly, the past several months have presented cost challenges unlike any we have seen. Although many of our competitors have significantly increased their prices, our processes continue to allow us to be the most competitive in the industry. Price increases in raw materials have had an impact on the entire industry, however having every person in the organization looking for ways to improve is paying off.

In our research, we’ve learned that Champion Laboratories has made a defined commitment to ethical excellence and customer service. Has listening to the customer changed with buying groups and distributors, and if so, how?

Buying groups are very important to some resellers. They provide a necessary function and are very efficient. Listening to buying groups provides a way to understand the needs of a large group of resellers. So, listening to a buying group is different in that they speak for many, but is generally the same as listening to individual distributors. While it provides more "buying power" to the members, we see them as beneficial. Since we believe we offer the best value, we like the combined buy and the efficiency of the interaction.

With your experience in other markets, how does our industry fair in terms of good business practices?

It’s sort of like cross-pollination. There are some things other industries can learn from this industry, and from my experience I am able to bring some "best practices" to the automotive aftermarket. In other industries the breadth and depth of the products is not as great as the automotive industry. Yet, the challenges to be lean and, at the same time, respond to the customer remains the same.

With the constant changes in new car technology, fuel choices and the automotive parts channel, what’s your outlook for the future?

Change is good. The challenges we face are a testament to our expertise. While fuel is changing rapidly now, lubrication is also changing, but more slowly. Nevertheless, we feel that Champion Laboratories is poised to face the future as these changes continue to shape our industry. Although the current environment is challenging, I remain optimistic about our industry’s future, and very optimistic about Champion Laboratories.

What’s new with the company in terms of innovation? Can we expect more new products in the pipeline?

We firmly believe innovation and new p rod uct int rod uctions are the keys to our future strength and growth. We utilize state of the art technology in all our products. But innovation, just for the sake of innovation doesn’t move the company forward. We have to know our customers, markets and their wants, better than anyone, in order to bring innovation to market that answers a customer need. I’m confident we do that.